Regulating E-Cigarettes

Many of the “burdensome” regulations that Sally Satel expresses concern about in her essay on electronic cigarettes are necessary to help ensure that these untested, unregulated nicotine delivery devices are in fact safe. Asking the tobacco industry to follow voluntary safety guidelines, as she suggests, is hardly adequate. Asking it to spend $300,000 to ensure our safety is hardly burdensome.

There is not sufficient evidence to conclude that e-cigarettes are a safer alternative to regular cigarettes or that e-cigarettes actually help smokers quit. In fact, some evidence shows that e-cigarettes may serve as a gateway to use of tobacco in young people, and that by allowing their use in locations where other smoking is prohibited, they may actually prolong addiction to tobacco.

Finally, it is too early to suggest labeling saying “it is likely that e-cigarettes ... are much safer than smoking.” That isn’t reassurance; it’s a marketing tactic. The buyer still needs to beware.

FRANK T. LEONE Philadelphia, Jan. 20, 2015

The writer, a pulmonologist, is chairman of the American Thoracic Society’s Tobacco Action Committee.